


After the Rain

by durinsreign



Series: Rainwater [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Angst and Feels, Doubt, Emotional Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Kissing in the Rain, M/M, Rain, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25772782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/durinsreign/pseuds/durinsreign
Summary: Nori thought that if he walked slow enough, Dwalin would come and catch up with him at any moment, call him a silly dwarf for not waiting the extra five minutes, and kiss his temple with wet lips and a rain soaked beard. But Dwalin didn't catch up with him, and Nori got to the rock formation and ran his fingers longingly over the damp stone where they had carved drawings of fish with their knives.
Relationships: Dwalin/Nori (Tolkien)
Series: Rainwater [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869685
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	After the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my beta reader and p!atgc for hyping me up! <3

_____________________________________

Nori shivered, wrapping his arms around himself to pull his coat tighter in the rain. He’d been waiting for hours and every once in a while, a little voice would lean over and whisper in his ear: _told you so_. This final time, Nori shook his head and got up from the stump, his clothes sticking to his skin.

At least by the overhang he had shelter. Dwalin would be coming soon, he hoped, and probably wouldn't mind it if he met him there instead. Nori never carried paper, never did he need it like he did right now. Then he remembered he couldn't exactly write anything anyways. The rain would ruin it.

In the end, he drew an arrow in the mud with the front of his boot toward the river (Dwalin would know where it was) and trudged the broken path to their little spot.

Nori thought that if he walked slow enough, Dwalin would come and catch up with him at any moment, call him a silly dwarf for not waiting the extra five minutes, and kiss his temple with wet lips and a rain soaked beard. But Dwalin didn't catch up with him, and Nori got to the rock formation and ran his fingers longingly over the damp stone where they had carved drawings of fish with their knives.

Nori's fish weren't as ruggedly carved as Dwalin's, but he liked that. They had laughed and teased each other the whole time, Nori commenting on Dwalin's messy blade strokes and Dwalin nudging Nori every few minutes to mess him up. Dwalin's fish were oddly shaped and swam in jagged straight lines; Nori's glided in soft figure eights around them, carefully cut with skilled precision. They were different, and Nori had years of practice carving into stone, but still, they liked them that way.

Nori's fingertips slid away from the fish as he crouched to get underneath the rock, taking his drenched coat off and setting it under him as a cushion to sit on. It was just as they'd left it; Nori could still feel himself squeezing into Dwalin's embrace for warmth, hearing the deep rumble of his voice, and the weight of his large hand in his hair, and he waited.

And waited.

And _waited_.

Even when the sky's soft blues blended into dark purples and he began to lose hope, Nori waited for Dwalin to show up.

Dwalin didn't show up.

Nori left the overhang, cold and disappointed, his chest aching just enough for it to hurt, and took the same broken path back.

And this was it, where they often met before deciding where to go next, where they greeted each other and said goodbye until their next meeting, a clearing in the forest surrounding the city. It wasn't raining anymore, but the dirt path still stuck to the soles of his boots like gum.

He stood there, after the rain, and reminisced of the time this clearing held laughter; when he looked at the trees and felt safe and at home, when he was pulled against the chest of a lover and kissed, and when said lover had asked for his hand in courtship.

Now it was empty and dark and _cold_. The clearing had not been touched in weeks, the only footprints seen in the mud were his own leaving and returning. The arrow he'd drawn earlier had filled with rainwater and he kicked it. Real hard and angry, he kicked the stupid arrow and cursed it for everything it was drawn for. And when he was finished, he looked to the sky, still seething, and cursed the stars for ever existing.

He wished Dwalin was here, holding his hand, or even just standing there, because at least then he wouldn't think that Dwalin no longer wished to see him.

The little voice from before, the one that had been bothering him since he’d arrived, once again whispered into his ear, the same three words Nori had now grown to despise: _told you so_. And Nori brought his hands to his ears, shook his head a little more violently than he needed, and slouched against his favorite tree that would soon be the one tree he could no longer even glance at, and he _sighed_. 

_Why didn't he come_?

_____________________________________

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos appreciated!


End file.
